Sites such as MySpace, Facebook and Xanga would be mandated to verify the ages of prospective members. This would include compelling minors to obtain parental consent before their profiles could be posted. Parents would also be permitted to access their kid's Web pages.

Designed to prevent children from sexual predators, the bill would fine sites that did not provide such systems with fines up to $5,000.

No specific technological remedy was specified to guide sites into full compliance. And it could be the non-specific technical hurdles that are making some of these sites uncomfortable with this bill.

In one example, MySpace chief security officerHemanshu Nigam, tells Computerworld's Jaikumar Vijayan that the proposal is "well intentioned" but not the answer to protecting minors.

"MySpace is deeply committed to protecting teens online," said Nigam, who told Vijayan he favors a "combined approach" that includes tools and features for making the site better, user education and collaboration with "online safety organizations."

"We have and will continue to focus considerable resources on developing effective ways to make our site safer," he said.

Officials from Xanga and Facebook did not respond to Computerworld's requests for comment.

Others thought that if this measure becomes law, it would only police the willing.

A bill such as the one proposed in Connecticut "allows you to control the people who are willing to be controlled" but is unlikely to make much of a difference otherwise, Pete Lindstrom, an analyst at Midvale, Utah-based Burton Group, told Vijayan."The notion of the predator is getting lost here. Are we trying to validate the kids who are underage trying to act overage, or the overage adults trying to act like they are underage?"